Moses was indeed a man of his times. Who didn't want a Big! New! Car! Progress! who could be against Progress? He wasn't above giving the old "red smear" to anyone who didn't follow along with his plan to exclude buses from Jones Beach by making the overpasses too low for them. Or the plan to put a transit line to Idlewild Airport along the Van Wyck expressway which had a wide enough right-of-way to allow for it. Even the legendary L.I.E. was supposed to have a rail line in its median.
No, said R.M. He was only interested in the transportation needs of people who owned cars and not the needs of people who lived in the ghettos who didn't have them and we know of what ethnicities they are. Yes, he was a racist and that played a major part in his plans for New York. No, wasn't bought out by the gasoline or rubber companies but he was the big hero to construction companies who got the contracts without bidding.
He was the head of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the toll money just kept on rolling in to the point where if the city wanted something built, he had the bucks and anything done was done his way. Screw the people of East Tremont in the Bronx when he built the Cross-Bronx Expressway, screw the farmers of Nassau County who had the Northern State Parkway built on their land and not on the land of the millionaires who lived more directly in the right of way. Ever wonder why that road makes the jog to the north near Westbury? The millionaires were his friends, that's why. Nice of him to condemn commuters to more time in traffic than they needed to be
He wanted to build to "improve the lives of people," but he hated ordinary people and was not interested in what they thought about much of anything. OK, rant over!
Moses was a man of the times, his time. Could he have been either enamoured with the gasoline buggies and their concrete pathways? Or was he bought out by the gasoline, auto, rubber, and concrete companies at the time (and many have made that charge and many more, like me, believe it). But he did take NY into the next decade quicker than other older cities and helped build up the Metropolitan area to meet the challenges of mid century. But he did it all at the expense of mass transit and its ability to meet the next century's needs. Short sighted or over zealous or over paid? I know how those on these pages feel.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
Not to boost the competition, but I have been told Passenger Train Journal has my article, which included in the manuscript and figures the why and how of putting streetcars on Broadway, Manhattan, Columbus Circle - 125th Street, and on Surf Avenue, Coney Island. I am waiting for my copy of the issue. If any reader of this thread had seen it, comments are welcome.
Robert Moses was an incredibly power hungry man. That's about all that I can say about him without breaking into a rant, which I will spare you.
All I can say is that I am glad he largely kept his claws off of the subway system, despite actively trying to stop expansion.
When one looks at the entire city of New York and the state of its streets and avenues clogged with traffic and the streets pot hole wrecked, it is apparent that the damages of removing and abandoning of the street car lines was and is to this day criminal.
When one visits Germany or France and the cities along the Rhine River and views the transportation systems in place you realize just how much the USA as a country has lost, we are in many areas of the nation totally dependent on the automobile. What is even clearer is the total loss of jobs that would exist in transportation in the cities and the better standard of living if a family did not have to purchase an automobile.
Correction: I should have written 2500-series Brill semi-convertables, not 4500-series. The 4500's were real convertables, some built by Laconia, like 4573 at Branford. Disclexia strikes again!
Robert Moses, exactly. I'm just now coming close to finishing Robert Caro's book about him, "The Power Broker." Hard to read a book about someone who you end up hating more and more, the more you learn about him. Growing up on Long Island as I did, his influence was felt every day of my life until I joined the Navy and got the hell away from there. Let's also not forget that the sainted "Little Flower" hated streetcars as well and wanted them gone long before they were supposed to be.
And Sidney (busses-only) Bigham. Like completely relaying Utica Avenue with new girder rail and concrete roadbed one year before bustitution just to prove that streetcars lost money.
How do you pronounce R O B E R T M O S E S? Damned! that's how.
The Nortons Point trolley line ran from an elevated connection with the rapid transit lines at Stillwell Avenue, Coney Island, Station, to the gate of the gated community "Sea Gate" at Nortons Point. It was completely on private right-of-way, with mostly unguarded but signed level crossing with most cross streets, overpasses at Stillwell itself and the next street west. Most of the day, cars ran every five of six minutes and were well patronized. It was operated with 1929-era double-end four-motored Peter-Witt streetcars, the 8000-series.
It should have been kept as a ligh rail line and should be operating today. The bus replacement was the existing Sea Gate bus on Surf Avenue, taking half again the time to make the trip with less convenient acess to rapid transit. One reason for its abandonment, about 1952, while PCC's were still running on Church, MacDonald, and Coney Island Avenues, was given as the poor condition of the then-non-revenue track on Surf Avenue for connection to the then still operating streetcar system used for maintenance trips.
This was a good example of negarive thinking and lack of creativitiy of New York's Transit Authority at the time.
The then rarely-used (scrapped 1954) Bluebird multisection train plus a few surplus PCC streetcars would have furnished enough material for Coney Island shops to build eight light rail vehicles for the specific service, essentially double-end trolley cars with all necessary safety equipment and provision for removable third-rail shoes for movement to and from Coney Island shops via connecting Culver Line tracks, seven cars required for the service and an eighth for spare. (Sacramento Northern's Chico and Marysville-Uba City Birney's had the 3rd rail shoe provisions.)
The tracks on Surf Avenue were worn. Some dated from horsecar days, plate-rail, with an L section, not T or girder rail. But until1946 they were used by regular Sea Gate line 4500-series Brill Semi-convertables, as well as Nortons Point shop moves.
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